That evening Jiang ngYao went to the Imperial Hotel. Beside the large and luxurious Imperial hospital was a hotel that were both under the Li Corporation. The location of the hotel itself was surrounded with another large shopping mall and the Li Corporation building. It was said that Li ZiChen’s father was often worried about his mother who would get ill and to make sure he could be there for her whenever she needed during her pregnancy and labor, his father had built the hospital only a building away from his corporation.
That was a story that almost every socialite knows.
How much the sons of Li Family loves their wives. They would even bend the sky and the world if it ans lifting their beloved wife’s mood and this was sothing that Li ZiChen seem to also share, that sense of love and protection.
This shouldn’t matter except Li ZiChen was extrely vengeful when it cos to AiLin’s enemies and Jiang ngYao knew that if there was soone who had caused so much suffering in AiLin’s life, it would be none other than Jiang ngYao himself.
He stood outside the hotel, sighing before he walked inside.
If he could, he would rather not enter here.
all the buildings surrounding the hotel all belonged to the Li Corporation which ant that the entire land had beca their little kingdom to control. They could easily destroy evidences, caras, and make sure things that happen gone from everyone’s eyes.
This was dangerous and he should have left but he couldn’t. The problem was that Li ZiChen had called him as he said he could offer the dias to be put on pause if he would co and have a chat.
Suspicious, Jiang ngYao wondered what this chat is, knowing he should expect the worse.
Right as he stepped inside, the bodyguards lining the hospital’s entrance felt like a march of armies ready to shoot him dead. But Jiang ngYao’s pride wouldn’t let him to simply bend or show his fear toward the surrounding. He lifted his chin high, looking at the path in front of him like it was nothing.
Jiang ngYao clenched his fists as he stepped through the grand entrance of the Imperial Hotel. The mont he crossed the threshold, a suffocating weight settled on his chest—a reminder that he had just walked into enemy territory.
Everything here scread of the Li family’s power. From the polished marble floors to the shimring chandeliers, it was a silent testant to their wealth, their influence, their untouchability. It was a place where even shadows had ears, where every step he took was being watched.
The staff greeted him with professional smiles, but Jiang ngYao could feel it, an undercurrent of sothing else. Was it recognition? Wariness? Contempt? Did they know who he was? Did they know what he had done to AiLin?
His jaw tightened.
Li ZiChen had set the stage perfectly.
He was calling him into his kingdom, stripping him of any leverage, making it painfully clear who held the upper hand.
And yet, Jiang ngYao had no choice but to walk deeper into the lion’s den.
A sleek suited attendant approached him with a practiced smile. "Mr. Li is expecting you. This way, please."
His feet felt heavy as he followed. He shouldn’t be here. He knew it. He should turn back now before it was too late.
But the mont he stepped into that elevator, Jiang ngYao knew, there was no turning back.
The elevator stopped at the highest floor of the hotel which had beca Li ZiChen’s penthouse. Upon entering a the floor to ceiling window greeted him and stood Li ZiChen who was standing in front the spread of city lights.
He didn’t turn back or have to turn back to see Jiang ngYao. His expression rigid and frosty as he stared at the hotel’s window, the window that was where AiLin was located.
He was grateful to his father’s little utopia as he had almost created one himself for AiLin, a new place, a new environnt, a controlled place and situation that would never co to hurt her.
Li ZiChen remained still, his sharp gaze fixed on the illuminated hospital across the street. His presence alone carried a weight that pressed down on the room, suffocating in its quiet intensity.
Jiang ngYao swallowed, his throat dry. The tension in the air was suffocating, thick with an unspoken threat. He had spent years navigating hostile boardrooms and ruthless corporate battles, but this was different. This wasn’t about money or business. This was personal.
And personal battles were far more dangerous.
Li ZiChen finally turned, his face a perfect mask of composure, yet his dark eyes burned with barely restrained fury. "You’re late," he said coolly, as if he hadn’t been standing there for hours, waiting, simring in his own rage.
Jiang ngYao forced a smirk. "Traffic."
A lie.
They both knew he had lingered outside, hesitating at the hotel’s entrance like a man standing at the edge of a battlefield, weighing the odds of survival.
Li ZiChen let out a quiet chuckle, a sound devoid of amusent. "Traffic?" He repeated the word slowly, savoring its absurdity. Then, he took a slow step forward. "No, I think you were stalling. Thinking if you should turn back before it’s too late."
Jiang ngYao’s jaw clenched, but he refused to look away. "I’m here, aren’t I?"
Li ZiChen’s lips curled into sothing that wasn’t quite a smile. "Yes," he mused, "you are."
He gestured to the leather chair opposite him, an invitation, or a command.
Jiang ngYao hesitated. Sitting would an acknowledging the power imbalance. That Li ZiChen had the upper hand. That this was his arena.
But refusing would an provoking him.
And that was far more dangerous.
So, with a slow breath, Jiang ngYao moved forward and took a seat, his movents deliberate, controlled. His pride wouldn’t allow him to appear rattled, no matter how deep his instincts scread at him to run.
The mont he sat, Li ZiChen leaned forward, his fingers steepled together.
"Let’s talk about why you’re really here," he said, his voice smooth but razor-sharp. "And let’s not waste ti with pleasantries, shall we?"
"Is this about AiLin?" Jiang ngYao questioned first, tightening his hand into a hard grip. He tried to pull a smile that didn’t reach too high up on his face.
Li ZiChen wasn’t amused as he responded, "There is no one else that would have caused to call soone like you here."
Jiang ngYao saw as Li ZiChen turned around, his back leaning to the glass window that felt frightening to those who had the phobia of height but looking at Li ZiChen’s face, it was as if he had controlled that fear of death and the height, seeming relax as if death itself couldn’t co to touch him.
The sheer confidence caused a crack inside Jiang ngYao’s heart.
"I don’t know what she had told you but before you suspect that I have done sothing to her, consider that she is an insane girl who had her own share of-"
CRASH
Jiang ngYao blinked, staring straight in front of him as sothing had hit the wall beside him. When he turned, he looked at the glass of whisky that had been slamd to the walls.
"The second ti you sar her na with that filthy tongue of yours," Li ZiChen looked at the glass and then back at him, his voice deceptively calm, "I won’t miss."
Jiang ngYao’s breath hitched. His eyes flickered from the shattered glass to the amber liquid dripping down the pristine white walls.
Li ZiChen hadn’t thrown that glass to intimidate him.
No, if he had wanted to hit him, he would have.
Jiang ngYao clenched his fists under the table, forcing his voice to remain steady. His body tensed, alert as he stared at that shattered glass. "She’s already twisted you around her little fingers, hasn’t she? Is that why you are so angry toward my family?"
Li ZiChen let out a slow breath, tilting his head as if considering sothing. Then, with a deliberate slowness, he pushed off the window, closing the space between them with asured steps.
"Angry?" he murmured, his voice dangerously soft. He stopped just a step away, close enough that Jiang ngYao could feel the weight of his presence. "No, Jiang ngYao. If I were angry, you wouldn’t be sitting here. You wouldn’t even be breathing."
Jiang ngYao’s throat tightened.
The air in the room was suffocating. It wasn’t the hotel’s wealth, the grandeur, or even the power Li ZiChen wielded that made it feel this way.
It was the sheer certainty in his voice.
He wasn’t bluffing.
Jiang ngYao had spent years maneuvering through corporate warfare, dealing with cutthroat businessn who played mind gas and backstabbing strategies.
But Li ZiChen wasn’t playing a ga.
He was delivering a promise.
"Your family have done a lot of things to her," Li ZiChen spoke in a trained voice but his gaze grew darker every word that slipped out from his mouth. "Starvation, abuse, and more. But she was even more particularly fearful towards you."
Jiang ngYao’s muscles tensed, the thoughts of the things he had done in the past ca rushing in his mory like a gust of wind.
"It’s odd isn’t it?" Li ZiChen inquired, "She could bear Mrs Jiang who had abused her physically and ntally. That woman had even almost beat her to death yet she could still hold her ground in front of her. But when it cos to you. AiLin trembled a little."
He had seen how AiLin’s finger had shook whenever she looked at Jiang ngYao. Even at ti when all Jiang Family was there, her eyes would instinctively dart away and avoid eting Jiang ngYao’s eyes as if she couldn’t bear to see his eyes.
Li ZiChen knew that no words would be able to cut her, how strong she is. Then why?
"So tell Jiang ngYao. What have you done?"
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